Two-way radios for hiking

I’ve been on group hikes where folks carry along little two-way radios, which are a notch above those walkie-talkies we played with as kids. The range isn’t great, especially when there are hills and trees in the way, but as long as you know their limitations and don’t expect “Beam me up Scotty” performance, you might find one worth having.

You really need to buy them in pairs. If you’re in the market, start out at ConsumerSearch.com, which has already done a bunch of the grunt work research on the various models. Among the links I found there:

Interestingly, Consumer Search’s “best overall model” was described as big, bulky and not likely to fit in a shirt pocket in a review at Amazon.com … so keep in mind you might want to hold the actual radio in hand before you buy. Also, the basic Motorola models that sell for under $30 a pair get reasonably good ratings, so you don’t have to go broke figuring out if you need one.

If you’re totally into the ultra-geeky-cool gadgets, GPS giant Garmin’s Rino range of GPS units have a two-way radio built in that allows you to location track anybody else in your group who also has one of these trinkets. Overkill for run-of-the-mill outings, but it could prove useful in certain expedition settings. These are not priced by the pair; two of the snazziest models would set you back over a thousand bucks.

Tom, my “Talusdancers” (www.talusdancers.org) buddies and I picked up a few of these some years back since we frequently travel in a large pack, uh, group on our annual trips. We thought they would be useful for keeping the young speedsters in contact with the grizzled (and slow. and old) veterans.

We carried and used them for the first few years. Funny thing is, when I saw your post I realized that we haven’t used them for the past 3 or 4 years… and no one has apparently missed them or said anything about it.

I do think they have some value, especially if you travel with kids who are old enough to need a bit of independence but still young enough to need adult contact. But for many of us who these days try to lighten our packs, they don’t make up in utility for the downside of weight.

I will say that they are quite a bit less expensive now than when we got ours.

The other original use was at ski areas, but cell phones have mostly taken over there now.

But Tom, you didn’t give your excuse for NOT considering ham radio. I’ll take the bait and do your work for you. Here’s some stuff that should have been in your article:

If you really want something that actually works, and can communicate over some real distance, you only need to spend a weekend to get your amateur (ham) radio license. My old friend and former colleague John Portune developed a system to teach and test people to earn their ham radio licenses in a weekend: http://w6nbc.com/ His program has around a 94% success rate. Local classes are available through the Bay Area Educational Amateur Radio Society.

Unlike part 15 walkie talkies, you can modify amateur radio transceivers in many ways to boost their range, and you have hundreds of channels to choose from. Part 15 transmitters are limited to a very low transmit power, while the legal power limits for amateur radio are, for most purposes, unlimited. In the most popular frequency bands hams have built mountain-top repeaters (relay stations) that can increase the range of small hand-held radios to hundreds of miles.

Ham radio is also the choice of most volunteer search and rescue units. So in addition to having one of the most reliable ways to call for help, you also have a chance of communicating with a rescuer who might be looking for you. Chances are excellent that you can find a channel that someone is already listening to, and thus can help you out.

And best of all, you’ll have communication capabilities that are always widely sought by government and NGO relief agencies after natural disasters (when telephone networks have historically failed). You could be a hero, just because you have a radio and know how to use it.

As for cost, the radio I carry into the wilderness costs around $250. And you can get something totally effective (and no bigger than a cell phone) for less than half of that.

You are right, the radios that you mentioned are toys! Unfortunately, you read stories all the time about hikers/climbers who encounter bad terrain/weather, and don’t have the communication tools to help them out.

Believe it or not, but there are professional radios out there that are small, which was one of your guidelines. Are they more expensive than $30? Yes. However, they will have a longer shelf life and will put you in a safer situation.

The best advice that I can give when scoping out a two way radio is how many watts (power) does it have and how durable is its casing? Motorola recently came out with the CP110 . It is a 2 watt radio that has a very sturdy casing. Also water resistant, which you will not find in “toy” radios.

In any extent, really enjoyed finding your blog and look forward to reading more articles.